Railroad-crossing



S. BALKWILL.

RAILROAD CROSSING. APPLICATION men um. 20, m9.

1,340,205. V Patented May 18,1920.

2 SHEET-SSHEET i.

s'. BALKWILL.

' RAILROAD caossma.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 20, 1919.

1 40,205. Patented 1 920.

2 S S-S 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT omiuos.

STEPHEN BALKWILL, 0F CLEVELAND, OHIO.

RAILROAD-CROSSING.

Application filed January 20, 1919.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STEPHEN BALKWILL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Railroad-Crossings, ofwhich the following is a full, clear,

and exact description.

The present invention relates to railroad crossings, and the object ofthe invention is to provide a corner piece or section for a crossingwhich is integral so that the corner piece may be inserted in thecrossing to form a part thereof, at the same time making the cornerpiece easily removable so that a new one may be substituted as occasionmay require.

enerally speaking, the invention may be said to comprise the elementsand combinations thereof, set forth in the accompanying claims.

Reference should be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part ofthis specification, in which Figure 1 is a top plan view of a crossingembodying a corner piece of my invention; Fig. 2 is a section upon theline 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a top plan view of a crossing embodying amodified form of my invention; Fig. 4 is a section upon the line 4.-4 ofFig. 3; and Fig. 5 shows a filler block construction.

The corner portions of a railroad crossing always receive the hardestusage and are subjected to a greater amount of wear than any otherportion of the crossing, being subjected to wear by traliic in bothdirections over the crossing, and it is hence these portions which mostfrequently require renewal.

here the crossing is made up of rolled rail sections, the corner portionis usually made up of arms which extend at an angle with respect to eachother. and each arm is usually made of two rails which are bolted toeach other and secured to the adjacent portions of the crossing.

It is my purpose to make the corner member of a crossing as a castintegral piece, which is secured in position by the use of bolts, butwhich may be readily removed from the crossing when the corner member isworn out and a new one substituted.

The present invention is particularly applicable and useful in thematter of reclaiming rolled rail crossings which have been inSpecification 01' Letters Patent.

Serial No. 271,996.

use, and in which the corner portions have become broken or worn to adegree necessitating renewal. Such crossings may be renovated and madeavailable for considerable more service by merely replacing the rolledrail sections which ordinarily are used in forming a corner portion ofthe crossing, and replacing the same with an integral cast cornerportion such as described herein.

In carrying my invention into effect in such a crossing as shown in Fig.1, the corner member 10 is made up with arms 10 and 10". These arms mayextend at any desired angle with respect to each other in accordancewith the angle at which the tracks approaching the crossing intersect.

The arms adjacent their outer portions are recessed, as indicated at 10and 10 in order to receive a rail with which the respective armscooperate. Each arm 10 and 10 at the portion thereof ahead of therecesses just mentioned, is provided with an extension such as indicatedat 10 in Fig. 2. This extension is so formed as to substantially fitbeneath the head and above the foot of the rolled rail with which itcooperates, as, for instance, the rolled rail portion 11 and the rolledrail portion 12.

The extension also is formed with a groove such as indicated at 10, thisgroove being so formed that when the corner portion 10 is assembled withrespect to the rolled rail sections with which it cooperates, the groove10 forms with the head of such rolled rail section, a complete groovethrough which the flanges of traversing wheels may pass, and it will bereadily understood that the head of the rolled rail forms a guide forthe wheel flange to guide it along the wheel flange groove of thecrossing.

Filler blocks 14: cooperate with the rolled rail portions adjacent eachcorner, and space the rolled rails which form the tread Patented May 18,1920. i

In crossings made up entirely of rolled rails, the filler blocks in oneline are continuous past the intersecting wheel flange ways. This fillerblock is frequently broken in usage. By the use of the integral cornermember, the breakage of the filler block is eliminated.

In the crossing shown in Figs. 3 and at, the crossing member 15 isprovided with arms 15 and 15 which arms at their extremities havenotched out portions 15 and 15 for the same purpose as that which haspreviously been described with respect to Fig. 1. The corner member 15is not provided with projections such as explained with respect to thatshown in Fig. 1, but instead, the arms 15 and 15 ahead of the notchedout portions are provided with grooves such as indicated at 15 From aninspection of Fig. t it will be seen that the rossing member and therolled rails 16 and 17 with which the arms of the corner membercooperate, are separated from each other by means of filler blocks suchas indicated at 18 which fit in the groove 15 Each filler block isprovided with a groove in the upper surface thereof, which inconjunction with the head of the rolled rail and the side of the arm ofthe crossing member 15 provide a groove for the flanges of car wheelswhich may pass over the same.

The crossing member is fastened and secured to the crossing by means ofbolts such as indicated at 19, which extend through the arms of thecrossing member, the filler block, and the web of the cooper atingrolled rail section.

As shown in both Figs. 2 and 41, the crossing member is cored out so asto make a lighter section, effect a saving in the quantity of metalused, and make the corner member easier to handle because of lighterweight.

The arms of the corner member in each case form treadways for the carwheels passing over the same. Consequently they receive the greatestamount of wear. It is my purpose to manufacture this crossing of a longwearing metal, such as manganese steel, but it will be apparent thatshould these crossing members become broken in usage, or worn out, theymay be easily removed and replaced, much more easily than the sameresult could be accomplished where an all rolled rail corner portion isused.

It is further clear that by the use of a corner ember such as shown inboth Figs. 1 and 3, the connection between the corner member and theadjacent rolled rail sections is such as to permit of a limited degreeof flexibility in usage, so that all the advantages inherent in therolled rail crossing are preserved, and the advantages gained from theuse of a cast metal corner piece which have before been enumerated.

'VVhile I have disclosed my invention as applied to .an all rolled railcrossing, it should be understood that other forms of crossing mayembody in them the feature of the cast metal corner memberwithoutdeparting from the spirit of this invention.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A railroad crossing having a corner portion which comprises a cornermember formed as an integral piece having arms, the top portion of thearms serving as tread portions and rail sections extending parallel withthe arms and with which the arms cooperate, means by which the said armsand rail sections are spaced to form intersecting wheel flange grooves,and means for securing the arms and rail sections to each other.

2. A railroad crossing having a corner portion comprising an integralcorner member formed with arms, the top portion of the arms serving astread portions, rail sections extending parallel with the arms and withwhich the arms cooperate, means lying between and cooperating with thesaid arms and rail sections whereby the arms are spaced from theircooperating rail sections and intersecting wheel flange grooves areformed, and means for securing the arms and rail sections to each other.

3. A railroad crossing having a corner portion comprising an integralcast corner member formed with arms, rail sections extending parallelwith the arms and with which the arms cooperate, portions of said armsbeing formed with projections which are adapted to fit beneath the headand above the foot of the rolled rail sections which cooperate with thesaid arms, thereby providing a wheel flangeway between each arm andcooperating rail section, and means for securing the arms and railsections to each other.

4L. A railroad crossing having a corner portion comprising a cornermember formed as an integral piece and having arms, rail sectionsextending parallel with said arms and with which each of the armscooperate, each of said arms being formed with'an extension adapted tofit beneath the head and above the foot of the rail section with whichit cooperates, a partial groove formed in said extension, which groovewith the head of the rolled rail section forms a complete wheel flangegroove, and means for securing the arms and rail sections to each other.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto aflix my signature.

STEPHEN BALKWILL.

